Moses full of weakness, leads by faith:
Moses says — “I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10b
God replies — “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him death or dumb?” Exodus 4:11
Moses struggled with speech. It could be he stuttered or did not speak clearly. Whatever the reason, God did say “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Moses had self-confidence issues due to his weakness.
He allowed the fear of his weakness to overcome his faith in God. Yet God promised to help him and teach him how to speak even to the point of allowing another to speak for him. The interesting thing here is God could of healed him of his slow speech just as he performed many miracles in Egypt. yet God did not do so. Instead God promised to be there at the needed time.
But, wouldn’t it of been easier to heal Moses so that he could be more confident and impress Pharaoh with his eloquent speech? From outward appearance and a humanistic perspective this would be true, but God always has a motive. The truth here is that God wanted Moses to first believe and trust in him and then show his power, how ever great or small. God wanted Moses to believe in the midst of his weakness.
In 1 Kings 17, we see Elisha was hungry and without food. So the Lord told Elisha to go to a town called Zarephath where he would find a widow who would supply him with food. Yet when he gets there he finds not only does she not have food for him, but not enough to feed her nor her son. So destitute was she that she was planning on a last meal with a little flower and oil she had left before death because they were starving. Imagine coming walking into this scene. God had sent you to this very place, and you are faithful and believe in God. You do find a widow but instead of finding what you need you find that you must supply what you need to others. For most of us, this would discourage us. We would walk away wondering why God did not provide. Our faith would have been weakened by the reality of the physical over the spiritual. However, For Elisha, he comes with a different mind set and a different faith. He does not give up, but instead, tells her to first make him some bread then some for herself and her son. Now this may have seemed like a selfish thing on the part of Elisha but it was actually an act of faith. Stepping out and believing before the miracle. What if the she makes him bread, he eats it and there is none left? How bad would he feel to take the last remaining food they had. Yet, in a sense, he was burning the bridge. Making the action of faith cost something if God did not show up. Is this a one time event in the Bible or do we see this elsewhere? How about Elijah when he called down the fire to burn the alter? Before God showed up he made it rather difficult for the miracle to happen. He poured water over the alter. He let the unfaithful go first to call their god. He mocked them by saying “perhaps your god is sleeping!” What if God did not show up when Elijah called to God to bring fire down? There was a definite cost, he likely would have been stoned. The truth is God honors faith that costs us something. I believe when we put our toe in the water hoping for a miracle, God is less willing to act. Again, think Mary and the servants when Jesus told them to fill the jugs with water. It was not until it was tasted that the miracle happened. There are many more instances in the Bible. However, for us, the truth is we must be persistent in our faith, an unceasing faith. A faith that believes and leaves the result up to God. Jesus gave the parable of the man who knocks on the door and is so persistent that the head of the house finally answers. At first the homeowner did not want to get up and was hoping the man knocking would go away. The lesson Jesus was pointing out was that God won’t answer unless you are persistent. Why is this? Because God wants to see that we are committed. God will commit to action once we commit to faith. Now, not all prayers are answered. Not all prayers go unanswered because of a lack of faith. But God did say that if we have even just a little “real” faith, we can move mountains.
For Moses, the same is true. He had to step out with his speech problems intact. God was not going to heal it and Moses never asked. Perhaps if Moses did ask God would have. But then again, maybe not. The real answer to faith and serving God is the end result. The solution is not in the process. What I mean by that is that God knows what you really need or want. Case in point, my mother in the early 90’s was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. In 1992, she was given about 6 months to live or she would need a heart transplant. I remember praying fervently for total healing for my mother, for God to wipe away the issues that caused the heart to not perform at maximum capacity. But why was I praying this? Well, I was praying this so that my mother would not die and she would remain on this earth. Now, here we are more than a decade later and she is still living. However, she still has heart issues. They never went away. So the question is, did God answer my prayer? YES! He did, she is living which was the very end result of my prayer and faith. The reality is I was focusing on the wrong thing but that didn’t matter, God showed up and he continues to show up. For Moses, the end result was following God’s command to talk to Pharaoh and free the Israelites. The stuttering was a physical outward sign that reminded him of his weakness and his need for reliance on faith. For me, all these years of my mother’s heart still in jeopardy has caused me to constantly check my faith.
“For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
Luke 12:12
Jesus words are consistent with the work of the Holy Spirit. We must first act in faith. Are you weak in speech? Do you lack confidence? are you the last to be picked? Good! you are the person God wants to use to spread his kingdom. God does not want the well liked because the focus is on God, not men. Just go, and God will be there at your most desperate time.
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
1 Corinthians 1:27
No responses yet